


Absence

by Mersayde



Series: Ghastly Antiques [10]
Category: None - Fandom
Genre: Other, black women, poem, racial undertones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 08:26:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15408954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mersayde/pseuds/Mersayde
Summary: class prompt: free write about a marginalized groupwritten: 6/12/2018





	Absence

a weightless voice decrepit in the shadows  
drowned in unfiltered light  
emphasizing their commonalities  
and scrubbing at their contradictions

regarded as air  
so incessant it’s absent  
so free it's  
|| trapped ||

in between sorrows and realities  
in between slanted lines of boldened accusations  
in between the spectrum of comforting night and constricting day

they are more than absence in the wind  
more than their tears in the sun

more than a contagious darkness

to you:

  
let me in on a secret: is your hesitancy towards equity a result of fear  
are you afraid of their freedom  
are you anxious of unlocking their chains  
are you afraid to give them better  
is your fear based on selfishness

let me in on a secret:

is their exterior not patriotic, is their structure a direct threat, 

are the building blocks of this foundation forged through internalized silence that manifests itself as shame.

there is a presence that is missing

one forced into a parasitic exchange, there is nothing to lose when there is nothing to be gained, 

if whispering on their death because they have lost all will to stand, flattened to the ground, tethered to the tails of their oppressors is what you wish

then again, I ask,

are you afraid

because if we, if they, were to spread their wings

and unfold their songs like the passage of time  
and open their mouths to shout at the voices

the voices that silence their heart  
but never their spirit  
but never their compassion  
never their strength, perseverance, or opulence that drips off our skin in exuberant waves with conviction

voices that fail to stop them, us, from carrying the troubles of a nation on their backs, used as stepping stones a tool used to achieve but often left behind

 

let me in on a secret: how much of you is missing  
that you are terrified 

of us, of them, being w h o l e

how much of you is paled to be cursed by absent silhouettes;

 

of a women of dark shadows that match her skin

**Author's Note:**

> this is eh, but something to post.


End file.
